Introduction

I love the idea of adding cucumber to fruit salads, especially with the combination of mint and Pimm’s light syrup here. This is an ideal dessert for outdoor entertaining when the weather is warm enough to linger at the lunch or dinner table. When shopping for the ingredients, you’re looking for fruits that are ripe but firm. If they’re too soft, they will lose their texture in the salad.

Serves 6

Easy

Ingredients

400g

strawberries, hulled and rinsed under the tap

½

large cucumber, peeled

2

English apples (such as Gala)

½

lemon

2

oranges

2

peaches

a small bunch

mint leaves, roughly chopped

For the Pimm's syrup:

200ml

Pimm’s

70g

caster sugar

Instructions

To make the syrup, heat the Pimm’s with the sugar in a small saucepan over a medium heat. Simmer for 4 minutes, or until the liquid has reduced by half. Remove from the heat. Refrigerate until cold.

Whilst the syrup cools, halve or quarter the straw berries and toss them into a bowl. Chop the cucumber into 1cm cubes, avoiding the seeds in the centre. Add to the bowl with the strawberries.

Core the apples. Chop into cubes roughly the same size as the cucumber before adding to the rest of the fruit. Stone and slice the peaches. Squeeze the half lemon over the fruit and toss to combine.

Using a knife, slice the peel off the oranges, going from north’ to south’. Slice the segments out from the centre, add to the rest of the fruit and squeeze over any remaining juice.

Pour the Pimm’s syrup over the fruit and add the mint leaves. Serve at room temperature.